At the Occupy Economics Working Group (EWG) meeting in London last night, there was a lively debate on land value and the impact of privatisation of the economic rents from land.
Minutes are available here: images/EWGmeeting4.1.2013.pdf
The proposition, put forward by Fred Harrison, is that the capture of the economic rents from the land are at the root of the social and economic problems we face today. The EWG will be conducting two further sessions in January on Land Value Tax (LVT) and is looking to get to grips with the detailed implementation of reform and consider whether this could gain wider support.
Land value is one leg of the New Economy initiative planned for the Critical Thinking agenda this year and Fred Harrison has agreed to participate in one of our sessions.
In addition to his book The Traumatised Society discussed in the Critical Thought interview in December 2012, Fred Harrison mentioned another book, The Losses of Nations, which contains empirical analysis of the impacts of taxing land as opposed to incomes.